CIHM 
Microfiche 
Series 
(Monographs) 


ICMH 

Collection  de 
microfiches 
(monographies) 


El 


Cwwdtan  InatituM  for  Historical  MieronproductkHW  /  InstHut  Canadian  da  mknifapraduetlMia  Mstoriquas 


1995 


Technical  and  Bibliographic  Notes  /  Notes  technique  et  bibliographiques 


The  Institute  has  attempted  to  obtain  the  best  original 
copy  available  for  filming.  Features  of  this  copy  which 
may  be  bibllographically  unique,  which  may  alter  any  of 
the  images  In  the  reproduction,  or  which  may 
significantly  change  the  usual  method  of  filming  are 
checked  below. 


GT 


Coiouied  covars  / 
Couvstture  de  couleur 


I     I  Covers  damaged  / 

' — '  Couverture  endommagte 

I     I  Coveis  restored  and/or  laminated/ 

—  Couverture  restaurtoet/oupellicuMe 

I     I  Cover  title  missing /Le  litre  de  couverture  manque 

I     I  ColourBd  maps/ Cartes  gAagrephiques en  couleur 

I     I  Coloured  inl<(i.e.  other  than  tjlue  or  black)/ 
Encre  de  couleur  (i.e.  autre  que  bleue  ou  noire) 

I     I  Cokxjred  plates  and/or  ilustratkxis/ 

' — '  Planchetet/ouillustratii  .sen couleur 

I     I  Bound  with  other  material/ 

' — '  Reii*  avoc  d'autres  documents 


D 
D 


D 


Only  editkxi  available/ 
Seule  MKkxi  disponibte 

Tight  binding  may  cause  shadows  or  distortion 
along  interior  margin  /  La  reliure  serrto  peut 
causer  de  I'ombre  ou  de  la  distorsnn  le  hng  de 
la  marge  intMeure. 

Blank  leaves  added  during  restoiatkxis  may  appear 
within  the  text.  Whenever  possible,  these  have 
been  onMed  from  timing  /  II  se  peul  que  ceitalnes 
pages  blanches  ajoutSes  k>rs  d'une  restauration 
apparalBsent  dans  le  texte,  mais,  kmque  cela  etait 
possiUe,  ces  pages  n'ont  pas  M  Amies. 


L'Institut  a  microfilme  le  meilleur  examplaire  qu'll  lui  a 
^\6  possible  de  se  procurer.  Les  details  de  cet  exem- 
piaire  qui  sort  peut-6tie  uniques  du  point  de  vue  brbli- 
ographique,  qui  peuvert  modifier  une  image  reproduite, 
ou  qui  peuvent  exiger  une  modifications  dans  la  m6th- 
ode  norrttale  de  filmage  sort  indiquis  ci-dessous. 

I     I     Cokurad  pages/ Pages  de  couleur 

I     I     Pages  damaged/ Pages  endommagees 

I     I     Pages  restored  and/or  laminated  / 
' — '     Pages  restauries  et/ou  pelleui«es 

[^    Pages  discokxjred,  stained  or  foxed  / 
' — '     Pages  d«cok>r«es,tachetae8oupiqu«es 

I     I     Pages  detached/ Pages  detacMes 

r^   Showthrough/ Transparence 

I     I     Quality  of  print  varies/ 

' — '     QuaKti  inigale  de  i'lmpressun 

I     I     Includes  supplementary  material/ 

—  Compienddumatirielsuppiamentaire 

I     I      Pages  wholly  or  partially  obscured  by  errata 

—  slips,  tissues,  etc.,  have  been  refilmed  to 
ensure  the  best  possible  image  /  Les  pages 
totalement  ou  partiellement  obscurcies  par  un 
feuillet  d'arrata,  une  pelure,  ete.,  ont  6t6  filmies 
k  nouveau  de  fafon  a  obtenir  la  mellleure 
image  possible. 

I     I      Opposing  pages  with  varying  colouration  or 

—  discolouratnns  are  filmed  twk:e  to  ensure  the 
best  possible  image  /  Les  pages  s'opposant 
ayant  des  colorations  varfablas  ou  des  decol- 
orations sort  filmtes  deux  fois  afin  d'obtenir  la 
meilleur  image  possible. 


PI      AddWonalcommems/ 

' — '      CommentairsssuppWmenlairss: 


Tliis  ittffl  it  f Himd  et  tiM  rtduetian  ratio  ehtdad  btkm/ 

C«  docMMni  Ml  fikn*  Ml  twi  di  tidueiiafi  in««ii  ej-dineut. 

'OX  14X  18X 


12X 


20X 


ax 


L^ 


2BX 


XX 


32X 


TIM  copy  fUmad  tMr*  ha*  baan  rapreducad  ttianlu 
to  tha  ganareailv  et: 

National  Library  of  Canada 


L'anamplaira  film*  f ut  raproduit  grtca  i  la 
9*n4roait4  da: 

Blbliotbiqua  nationala  du  Canada 


Tha  imagaa  appaaring  hara  ara  tha  baat  qualitv 
poaaibla  eonaidaring  tha  condition  and  lagibilitv 
of  tha  original  copy  and  in  kaaping  with  tha 
filming  centraet  apacificatiena. 


Laa  imagaa  tuivantaa  ont  txt  raproduitai  avac  la 
plua  grand  aoin,  eompta  lanu  da  la  condition  al 
da  la  nanat*  da  I'aaamplaira  tilmi,  ai  an 
conformM  avac  laa  eondltiona  du  central  da 
tUmag*. 


Original  eopiaa  in  printad  papar  eevara  ara  fllmad 
baginning  with  ««•  front  covar  and  anding  on 
tha  laat  paga  with  a  printad  or  iUualratad  impraa- 
aion.  or  tha  back  covar  whan  appropriata.  All 
othar  original  eopiaa  ara  filmed  beginning  on  tha 
firat  paga  with  a  printed  or  llluatratad  imprea- 
aion.  and  anding  en  the  laat  page  with  e  printed 
or  illuatrated  impreaaion. 


Lee  eiiempleirea  erigliMua  dent  la  eouvarture  an 
papier  eet  ImprimOe  aont  tllma»  en  eemmencani 
par  la  premier  plat  et  en  terminant  aoit  par  le 
derniire  page  qui  eomperte  une  empreinie 
dimpreaaion  eu  d'lUuatration,  leit  par  la  second 
plat,  aelon  I*  caa.  Toua  laa  autrea  axempiairaa 
originaua  aont  filmda  an  eommencant  par  la 
pramiAre  paga  qui  eomperte  une  empreinto 
dimpreeaien  ou  d'llluatration  at  en  terminant  par 
la  damitre  paga  qui  comporte  une  telle 
empreinte. 


The  laat  recorded  freme  on  eech  microfiche 
ahaU  eonuin  tha  lymbol  —^  Imeening  "CON- 
TINUED"), or  the  aymbel  ▼  Imeening  "END"). 


Meps,  plalaa.  charu.  etc..  may  be  filmed  at 
different  reduction  ratioa.  Those  too  large  to  be 
entirely  included  in  one  eapoaure  are  filmed 
beginning  in  the  upper  left  hend  comer,  left  to 
right  and  top  to  bonom,  as  many  frames  as 
required.  The  following  diegrams  illuawata  the 
method: 


Un  dee  aymboles  suivanu  spparaitra  sur  la 
damitre  image  do  cheque  microfiche,  selon  le 
caa:  le  symbele  ^»  signifle  "A  SUIVRE".  le 
symbole  ▼  signifle  "FIN". 

Laa  cartas,  planchaa,  ubiaaui,  etc..  peuwent  itra 
filmto  *  das  uux  da  rMuction  diffOranu. 
Lorsque  le  document  eat  trap  grand  pour  atre 
reproduit  en  un  soul  clieha.  il  est  film*  t  partir 
da  rangia  sup*riaur  gauche,  do  gauche  *  droite. 
et  do  haul  en  baa.  an  prenant  la  nombra 
d'Imagea  naceaaaira.  Lea  diagrammae  suiwants 
iUuatrent  la  mOlhada. 


1 

2 

3 

1 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

maecon  mwuition  ibt  oun 

(ANSI  ond  ISO  TECT  CHA«T  No.  J) 


IM 


m 


12.5 


12.2 


12.0 


j§ 


j|    APPLIED  IM/OE    Inc 


1953  Cost  Unin  SlrMt 
RocHMtar,   Nm   York         146C 
(71fl)   482  -  OJOO  -  Phon« 
(7ie)  286-  3989  -Fax 


fY  OF 


INCIPAL 

OF  Ma 


"■^f^i 


THE  UNITY  OF  LEARNING 


BY 


WiLLIAM  PETERSON,  M.  A.,  LL.  D.,  C.  M.  G. 


PRINCIPAL  AND  VICECHANCBLLOB 
OF  MoGILIi  UNIVERSITY 


AN  ADDRESS  DELIVERED  AT  THE 

JUBILEE  OF  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  WISCONSIN 

MADISON,  JUNE  9,  1904 


THE  UNITY  OF  LEARNING 


The  Canadian  nniversity  which  accredited  me  aa  a 
delegate  to  this  jabilee  and  inauguration  is  twenty- 
five  years  older  than  the  University  of  Wisconsin ;  as 
for  Oxford,  which  I  have  the  honor  also  to  represent, — 
Oxford  does  not  really  know  her  age.  She  is  past  the 
time  of  life  when  it  is  easy  or  convenient  to  recall  the 
date  of  one's  >-irth.  Unlike  yonr  university,  McOill 
in  Montreal  is  a  private  foundation,  owing  little,  if 
anything,  to  the  state.  Such  institutions  eT'st  for  the 
purpose,  epeaking  for  the  moment  only  of  finance,  of 
enabling  wealthy  givers  to  escape  the  epitaph  which 
might  otherwise  record  the  barn,  naked  fact  that  "the 
rich  man  died  also  aid  was  buried."  How  different 
is  yonr  case  1  I  have  never  heard  the  points  of  con- 
trast between  the  two  types — the  state  university  and 
the  private  foundation — put  so  cogently  as  by  those 
who  have  already  addressed  you.  We  may  well  envy 
you  thbt  wealth  of  public  appreciation  which  takes 
the  form  of  a  large  annual  subsidy, — paid,  I  have  no 
doubt,  with  the  regularity  of  clockwork, — and  which 
operates  at  ihe  same  time  as  a  guarantee  that  your 
t^ork  shall  alvays  keep  in  touch  with  practical  and 
public  aims.  The  beaut'Jul  drives  which  yonr  visitors 
have  been  privileged  to  take  in  the  neighborhood  have 
impressed  on  them  the  fact  that  the  state  has  enconr- 

[3] 


aged  you  to  niiiwx  ii  public  park  and  call  it  a  campna. 
You  do  not  i>ennit  any  othe-  university  iuBtitntion  in 
this  state  to  approacii  th«  legislature— yon  have  it  -Ul 
to  yourself.  No  two  state  universities,  as  was  said 
yesterday,  are  supposed  to  ask  for  appropriations 
from  the  same  commonwealth.  How  different  are  our 
relations  with  the  private  donor  I  He  i^  distracted  by 
rival  claims  and  conflicting  interests,  and  cannot  lavish 
all  his  affections  on  the  college  of  his  choice.  There 
are  the  churches  for  instance  I 

Of  Oxford  it  might  be  difficult  to  say  whether  it  is 
on  the  whole  a  public  or  a  private  foundation.  Such 
state  recognition  as  it  enjoys  does  not  carry  with  it 
any  great  increase  of  thematerial  resources  of  the  uni- 
versity, and  as  to  private  donations  it  seems  a  longtime 
since  the  pious  founders  went  to  their  rest.  There  is 
generally,  in  all  private  foundations,  a  long  wait  be- 
tween the  gifts.  The  reason  why  Oxford  receives  no 
endowments  now  from  private  sources  is  possibly  the 
mistaken  idea  that  a  university  which  has  been  grow- 
ing for  so  many  centuries  must  surely  be  complete. 

Neither  McGill  nor  Oxford  definitely  authorized  me 
to  inflict  in  its  name  on  this  large  and  representative 
audience  any  expression  of  academic  views.  But  I 
am  quite  at  home  in  such  celebrations,  both  in  this 
world  and  in  that  which  some  of  us  call  the  old 
country;  and  it  is  therefore  a  pleasure  to  respond  to 
your  new  president's  invitation  that  I  should  say 
something  on  the  subject  of  our  mutual  interests.  A 
great  part  of  the  activity  of  a  modern  college  head 
is  in  fact  taken  up  with  attending  such  celebrations 
[1] 


H8  tliig.  My  apprcnticegliip  hvtfun  IxTunty  yenrB 
ago— as  far  back  hi  the  great  Edinbnrgb  tercentenary 
in  1H84.  Though  it  hos  falinn  to  my  lot  to  attend 
similar  festivals  at  various  poiuti  on  this  continent, 
I  have  never  yet  been  quite  so  far  west — or  rather  let 
me  say,  (|uite  so  near  what  I  am  told  is  to  be  considered 
the  center  of  American  gravity.  I  think  it  was  that 
spirited  writer,  Dr.  Conan  Doyle,  who  spoke  feelingly 
of  finding  all  the  comforts  of  civilization  in  the  course 
of  a  lecturing  tour  which  he  made  through  the  United 
States, — in  the  hotel,  for  example,  where  the  barber 
shop  provided  him  with  attendance  from  a  hairdresser 
on  the  very  spot  where  in  recent  memory  the  original 
inhabitants  of  the  continent  might  have  left  no  hair  on 
his  head  at  nil.  But,  however  appreciative  such  a 
strolling  lee'  i  -er  may  show  himself,  he  cannot  expe- 
rience those  I'eelings  of  gratitude  and  satisfaction 
which  fill  our  hearts  tc-day,  when,  as  the  invited  guests 
of  n  great  American  nniv>  -sity,  we  receive  such  over- 
whelming proof  of  Amet.  ■  i  friendliress  and  Ameri- 
can hospitality. 

After  all  the  wealth  of  oratory  to  which  we  have  lis- 
tened, it  may  not  be  out  of  place  for  me  to  call  your 
attention  to  the  fact  that  this  is  the  first  opportunity 
you  have  had  of  hearing  from  the  outside  world.  Pre- 
vious speakers  have  spoken  as  fellow  citizens;  I  am 
called  upon  to  represent  the  foreigner !  It  is  a  com- 
fort to  think  that  what  I  shall  endeavor  to  submit  to 
you  ought  not,  at  leost,  to  sound  very  foreign  in  your 
ears.  I  should  like  to  tell  you,  to  begin  with,  that  the 
duty  of  addressing  you  could  not  have  fallen  to  the  lot 

[«] 


of  any  who  has  a  greater  respect  for,  or  a  higher  ap- 
preciation of,  the  people  of  these  United  States.  I 
am  a  great  admirer  of  your  nation.  On  more  than 
one  occasion  in  the  course  of  my  residence  on  this  con- 
tinent, I  have  had  valued  opportunities  of  speaking 
on  the  subject  of  Anglo-American  interests,  showing 
to  the  best  of  my  poor  ability  how  Britain  and  the 
United  States  are  bound  together  by  ties  stronger 
than  laws  and  constitutions  can  create, — by  commu- 
nity of  race,  language,  literature,  religion,  institutions, 
commercial  and  social  intercourse,  and  the  glorious 
traditions  of  a  common  history.  No  one  can  be  much 
in  touch  with  your  people  without  being  constantly 
struck  by  its  energy  and  enterprise;  its  almost  un- 
bounded confidence  and  consciousness  of  power;  its 
resourcefulness,  ingenuity,  and  above  all  the  rapidity 
with  which  it  can  adapt  itself  to  meet  the  calls  of  new 
conditions  and  ever-changing  circumstances.  As  one 
of  my  Canadian  colleagues*  lately  expressed  it,  "the 
bold  spirit  of  enterprise  which  yon  have  shown  and 
your  capacity  for  organization,  encouraged  from  the 
beginning  by  the  requirements  of  a  vast  new  territory, 
now  amount  to  something  which  is  as  clearly  national 
genius  as  the  Roman's  capacity  for  organizing  con- 
quest in  the  ancient  world  and  the  Englishman's  for 
organizing  empire  in  the  modern."  As  for  education, 
that  has  become  one  of  your  greatest  national  indus- 
tries. There  is  no  more  powerful  unifying  agency  at 
work  in  the  world  than  education.  It  may  interest  you 
to  know  that  at  a  great  imperial  university  conference 
•Profeuor  Cappon  o(  Queeo's  UnlTeraity. 
[6] 


which  I  had  the  honor  of  attending  in  London  last  year, 
and  which  was  presided  over  hj  Mr.  James  Bryce,  more 
than  one  speaker  expressed  the  view  that  if  we  only 
had  representatives  from  American  universities  with 
us,  we  should  have  been  quite  complete.  In  default 
of  any  such  larger  federation,  it  is  at  least  open  to  cul- 
tivate the  cordial  relationships  which  are  implied  iu 
the  exchange  of  visits  on  the  occasion  of  interesting 
ceremonials  such  as  the  present.  I  do  not  know  that 
either  Englishmen  or  Americans  are  sufficiently  con- 
scious of  the  amount  of  fusion  that  is  going  on  around 
and  about  us,  as  shown  especially  in  the  results  of  the 
silent  processes  by  which  our  common  language  is  as- 
serting its  supremacy  not  only  on  this  continent,  but 
in  far  off  Asia,  Australia,  and  Africa  as  well.  It  is  a 
good  augury  for  the  future  federation  of  the  world 
that  America — as  a  whole — speaks  English  and  is  con- 
tent to  call  it  English  stUl  I 

When  your  president  asked  me  to  furnish  him  with 
some  title  for  my  address  this  forenoon,  I  felt  inclined 
to  suggest  that  I  might  be  allowed  to  discourse  on  what 
I  should  have  liked  to  call  "standing  impressions." 
For  such  a  talk  I  should  have  been  glad  to  draw  in- 
spiration merely  from  the  various  speeches  which  I 
knew  were  to  precede  mine.  But  something  more 
formal  was  required  of  me  and  I  have  been  at  some 
pains  to  comply  with  the  demand.  No  one  can  take 
part  in  such  a  ceremonial  as  this  without  realizing  the 
degree  of  identity,  as  well  as  difference,  that  will  be 
found  to  exist  on  a  comparison  of  British  and  Ameri- 
can university  institutions.  Identity  there  must  ever 
[7] 


be  amongst  the  nniversities  of  all  conntries,  centering 
as  each  does  in  the  conunon  constitution  of  chair,  fac- 
ulty, and  senate.  (I  leave  the  question  of  business 
administration  out  of  account,  as  that  is  cared  for  in 
many  different  ways.)  All  American  universities  are 
democratic,  some  more,  some  less.  Those  who  still 
imagine  that  a  democracy  prefers  to  be  governed  by 
ignorant  persons  ought  to  have  had  the  opportunity 
which  your  visitors  have  enjoyed,  of  listening  to  the 
speakers  whose  eloquence,  as  is  usually  the  case  at 
such  gatherings  in  the  United  States,  has  been  so  re- 
markable a  feature  of  your  festival.  It  is  not  the  fact 
that  a  democracy  would  choose,  if  left  to  itself,  to  re- 
main ignorant.  It  wants  rather  the  best  guidance 
that  it  can  get.  That  is  why  it  is  that,  no  matter 
what  course  the  student  may  follow,  his  university 
training  is  not  considered  to  have  done  much  for  him 
if  it  fails  to  make  him  more  fit  than  he  otherwise 
would  have  been,  to  lead  his  fellowmen,  and  to  take  a 
useful  and  a  creditable  part  in  the  conduct  of  publio 
affairs.  Preparation  for  citizenship  and  for  the  pub- 
lic service  has  rightly  been  made  the  basis  of  much  of 
your  work  in  the  realm  of  higher  education.  There 
is  a  passage  in  one  of  President  Eliot's  recent  reports 
which  may  well  be  cited  in  this  connection:  "Since 
wise  and  efficient  conduct  of  American  affairs,  com- 
mercial, industrial,  and  public,  depends  more  and  more 
upon  the  learned  and  scientific  professions,  the  univer- 
sities owe  it  to  the  country  to  provide  the  best  possible 
preparation  for  all  the  professions.  This  best  possi- 
ble preparation  can  only  be  given  to  young  men  who  up 

[8] 


to  their  twenty-first  year  have  had  the  advantages 
of  continnons  and  progressive  school  and  college 
training." 

The  world  is  older  now  than  it  was  in  the  days  when 
universities  first  were  founded,  and  the  forces  on 
which  they  depend  in  our  time  manifest  themselves  in 
forms  which  it  may  sometimes  appear  hard  to  identify 
with  those  that  led  to  the  institution  of  the  earliest 
seats  of  learning  in  Europe.  The  inevitable  law  of 
change  has  asserted  itself  conspicuously  in  the  sphere 
of  higher  education.  But  though  conditions  have  be- 
come very  different  from  what  they  used  to  be,  it  is 
really  not  difficult  to  ti'ace  something  at  least  of  the 
same  spirit  continuously  operative  through  the  centur- 
ies. The  earliest  universities  were  the  nurslings  of 
the  church, — the  church  which  after  fostering  learning 
through  the  darkest  of  the  dark  ages  had  now  become 
the  great  centralizing  and  unifying  agency  of  medie- 
val Europe.  Princes  and  people  had  combined  their 
efforts  with  those  of  learned  men  to  develop  them  out 
of  the  old  cathedral  and  cloister  schools  where  the 
only  teachers  were  the  monks.  There  is  a  sense  in 
wL'ch  these  universities  were  the  models  even  of  the 
technical  schools  which  in  our  day  have  fonnd  shelter, 
and  let  us  hope  inspiration  also,  under  the  broad  SBgis 
of  our  academic  institutions.  For  were  they  not  pro- 
fessional schools,  and  were  not  the  subjects  which 
they  taught  mainly  such  as  were  intended  to  prepare 
priests  and  monks  for  their  work  in  lifef  If  we  claim 
to  be  their  lineal  successors  we  must  keep  well  to  the 
front  that  conception  of  the  unity  of  learning  and  the 
[9] 


interdependence  of  stndieB  which  in  their  different 
circumstances  they  found  it  comparatively  easy  to 
foster.  The  various  branches  of  learning  stand  in 
vital  relation  one  to  another.  To  use  an  illustration 
employed  by  the  historian  Gibbon,  they  resemble  "a 
vast  forest,  every  tree  of  which  appears  at  first  sight 
to  be  isolated  and  separate,  but  on  digging  beneath 
the  surface  their  roots  are  found  to  be  all  interlaced 
with  each  other."  One  subject  has  a  way  of  throwing 
light  upon  another,  and  even  when  the  relation  be- 
tween the  various  studies  is  least  obvious,  it  will  gener- 
ally be  found  that  some  deep-lying  principle  exists 
which,  when  discovered  and  applied,  will  bring  into  the 
closest  union  with  each  other  branches  that  may  ap- 
pear to  be  totally  unconnected.  It  is  by  apprehending 
the  similarity  of  methods  that  runs  through  all  the 
sciences  that  the  student  will  be  enabled,  amid  the 
multiplici*;-  of  subjects  which  strain  for  recognition, 
to  hold  fast  the  ideal  of  the  unity  of  learning,  to  keep 
the  parts  in  due  subordination  to  the  conception  of 
the  whole,  and  to  bring  himself  into  sympathetic  con- 
tact with  the  comprehensive  circle  of  human  knowl- 
edge. After  all  it  is  the  spirit  which  makes  us  one, 
no  matter  what  differences  may  exist  as  regards  ex- 
ternal forms.  Our  universities  need  not  all  be  fash- 
ioned in  the  same  mould.  Here  in  Wisconsin,  with 
your  state  patronage  and  your  mutual  understanding 
as  to  the  advantages  which  both  parties  to  existing 
contracts  may  hope  to  reap,  it  may  surprise  you  to 
realize  that  questions  are  still  raised  elsewhere  as  to 
the  propriety  of  including  in  the  university  cnrricu- 
110] 


lam  the  indastrial  applications  of  science.  To  me  it 
seems  to  be  the  natnral  consequence  of  the  rapid 
growth  of  science  in  recent  times.  I  have  already  re- 
minded you  that  the  earliest  nniversities  were  emi- 
nently practical.  Bologna  was  founded  for  law,  Sal- 
erno for  medicine.  The  distinction  between  what  we 
call  pure  and  applied  science  is  a  natural  and  neces- 
sary distinction,  and  though  the  former  now  comes 
first  in  the  order  of  teaching,  it  was  not  so  in  the  order 
of  historical  development.  It  was  the  practical  needs  of 
life  that  gave  rise  in  the  first  instance  to  the  science  of 
astronomy,  for  example,  and  geometry;  and  as  for 
chemistry,  in  the  hands  of  alchemists  its  essential  mo- 
tive was  the  persistent  endeavor  to  transfuse  the  baser 
metals  into  gold.  On  the  one  hand  the  practical  appli- 
cations of  science  lie  at  the  foundations  of  all  science; 
on  the  other,  it  may  be  truly  said  that  all  the  marvels 
of  modem  scientific  activity  rest  on  the  basis  of  the 
abstract  and  theoretical  learning  which  is  fostered  by 
the  university,  and  which,  as  has  been  rightly  insisted 
on  by  previous  speakers,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  state, 
as  well  as  its  privilege,  to  develop  and  encourage  in 
an  institution  such  as  this.  What  we  have  to  do  is  to 
seek  to  minimize  the  danger  and  disadvantage  of  the 
separation  of  the  two  spheres  by  giving  protical  men 
a  sound  training  in  theory,  and  also  by  kee  »  theory 
in  touch  with  practice. 

There  are,  in  fact,  obvious  advantages  in  the  asso- 
ciation of  technology  with  a  university  curriculum. 
The  university  alone  can  adequately  cover  the  higher 
parts  of  technical  instruction,  safe-guarding  the  "dis- 
[11] 


interestedness"  of  science  and  keeping  in  due  subordi- 
nation to  the  search  for  truth  the  material  advantages 
and  "bread-earning"  potencies  that  may  be  involved 
in  any  particular  branch  of  study.  And  by  so  doing, — 
by  throwing  its  sgis  over  technology, — the  university 
learns  the  lesson  that  the  day  is  long  past  and  gone 
when  it  might  be  content  with  being  a  mere  academic 
ornament,  instead  of  striving  to  make  itself  a  center 
of  practical  usefulness  in  the  community.  The  word 
has  gone  forth  over  all  the  world  that  learning  and 
science  are  and  must  ever  remain  incomplete  and  un- 
satisfying unless  they  can  be  adapted  to  the  service 
and  the  use  of  man. 

The  danger  now  rather  seems  to  be  that  the  needs 
of  practical  and  professional  training,  and  the  pres- 
sure of  commercial  interests,  may  tend  to  depress  the 
standard  of  liberal  education  and  the  old  traditions 
of  culture.  We  hear  much  nowadays  of  proposals  to 
get  the  universities  to  shorten  or  cut  down  the  aca- 
demic and  literary  side  of  their  training.  But  if  we 
follow  our  best  counsellors  we  shall  not  want  to  do  so 
many  things  in  so  great  a  hurry.  Bather  we  shall 
stand  by  the  sure  foundation  which  a  university  train- 
ing oug!;t  to  guarantee.  This  has  been  well  described 
by  one  of  your  own  authorities,  Professor  Andrew 
West  of  Princeton,  in  his  reference  to  the  college  de- 
partment of  a  university  as  that  which  furnishes  "the 
one  repository  and  shelter  of  liberal  education  as  dis- 
tinct from  technical  or  commercial  training;  the  only 
available  foundation  for  the  erection  of  universities 
containing  faculties  devoted  to  the  maintenance  of 
[12] 


pure  learning,  and  the  only  institation  which  can  fnr- 
nish  the  preparation  which  ia  always  desired,  even 
though  it  is  not  yet  generally  exacted,  by  the  better 
professional  schools." 

We  all  know  when  it  becomes  our  duty  gently  to 
combat,  for  example,  the  wishes  of  the  parent  who 
says,  "My  boy  wants  to  be  a  chemist  or  an  engineer; 
put  him  through  his  studies  in  the  shortest  possible 
time."  A  year  or  two's  delay  will  make  all  the  better 
man  of  him.  Not  that  we  do  not  believe  in  specializa- 
tion, but  we  also  believe  that  the  student  makes  a  mis- 
take when  in  his  haste  to  advance  himself  in  some 
special  field,  he  turns  his  back  on  the  advantages  of  a 
broad,  general  education.  Let  him  have  an  oppor- 
tunity of  developing  an  interest  also  in  other  subjects, 
outside  his  own  particular  sphere;  so  shall  we  secure 
that  he  shall  rise  superior  to  the  temptation  of  acquir- 
ing the  mere  knacks  of  a  trade,  and  that  those  who  r  y 
become  the  future  leaders  of  great  industrial  unaoi- 
takings,  shall  have  a  mastery  of  principles  as  well  as 
that  faculty  of  well-balanced  judgment  and  careful 
discrimination  which,  as  distinct  from  the  mere  ac- 
quisition of  knowledge,  is  the  mark  of  a  sound  and 
comprehensive  education. 

It  is  by  giving  emphasis  to  this  argument  that  we 
may  avoid  any  reasonable  censure  from  those  who 
wish  to  warn  us  that  it  is  no  part  of  the  work  and  office 
of  a  university  to  teach  the  students  how  money  may 
be  made.  Apart  from  all  thought  of  "getting  on  in 
the  world,"  the  benefits  of  a  college  training  should  be 
made  to  stand  out  as  solid  advantages  for  the  better- 
[13] 


ment  and  enrichment  of  the  individnsl  life.  It  ia  a 
trite  remark  that  bnsiness  or  professional  avocations 
do  not  make  up  the  whole  of  existence  for  any  one  of 
us.  The  leisure  of  life  has  to  be  provided  for,  and  as 
was  lately  remarked  by  one  of  my  colleagues  in  Mont- 
real, "Everyone  should  receive  an  equipment  such  as 
shall  enable  him  even  to  get  through  his  Sundays  with 
credit." 

I  have  referred  already  to  the  great  expansion  in 
modem  days  of  the  field  of  university  studies.  Law, 
medicine,  theology,  are  no  longer  the  only  technical 
applications  of  our  academic  work.  The  modem  type 
of  college  professor  can  make  his  views  heard,  not 
only  about  railroads,  bridges,  and  electrical  supplies, 
but  also  about  public  finance  and  currency  and  bank- 
ing— even  about  an  international  dispute  over  a  bound- 
ary line !  And  it  is  good  for  a  university  thus  to  be 
brought  into  close  touch  with  the  actual  needs  of  life. 
No  one  believes  nowadays  that  a  sound  training  in 
classics  and  mathematics  is  enough  for  a  student, 
whatever  may  be  the  line  of  life  he  may  intend  to  enter 
on.  But  in  adapting  ourselves  to  the  new,  we  need  by 
no  means  part  wholly  with  the  old.  Do  not  let  us  for- 
get that  while  it  is  not  beneath  the  dignity  of  a  univer- 
sity to  take  an  interest  in  practical  matters,  such  as 
the  problems  of  banking  and  finance,  sanitary  reform, 
water  supply,  taxation,  charity  organization,  and  mu- 
nicipal questions  generally,  there  is  such  a  thing  as  the 
uplifting  of  professional  interests  and  pursuits  by 
association  with  an  institution  which  is  above  and  be- 
yond them  all.  The  path  of  progress  in  the  profes- 
[14] 


sional  facnlties  it  now  marked  out  on  the  lines  of  an 
ever-increaiing  identification  with  the  aims  and  idealB 
of  the  university.  Instead  of  separation  and  independ- 
ence, what  we  work  for  now  is  the  co-ordination  of 
subjects  and  departments,  the  inter-relation  and  inter- 
dependence of  the  faculties,  the  unification  of  the  sep- 
arate and  segregated  parts  in  one  systematic  and 
consistent  whole,  in  which  each  branch,  while  distinct 
in  its  own  well  defined  sphere,  shall  yet  contribute  to 
the  common  strength  of  all.  Upon  such  a  scheme  min- 
ing may  quite  well  go  hand  in  hand  with  metaphysics, 
Hebrew  with  hydraulics.  Take  mining,  a  branch  of 
which  the  importance  can  hardly  be  over-estimated, 
and  which  we  have  fully  installed  at  one  of  the  univer- 
sities which  I  represent  to-day, — I  need  hardly  say  I 
am  not  referring  to  Oxford  I  It  may  serve  to  illus- 
trate the  wide  interests  that  may  be  cultivated  in  a 
university  of  the  kind  I  am  describing,  if  I  recall  the 
fact  that  I  know  also  another  type  of  miner,  different 
from  the  one  who  is  trained  in  schools  of  mining  engin- 
eering. Some  of  my  friends  are  digging  at  this 
■uoment — not  on  virgin  soil  like  the  Klondike,  but  in 
countries  like  Egypt,  and  Crete,  and  Asia  Minor, 
whose  hills  and  plains  are  gray  with  hoar  antiquity. 
What  is  the  object  of  their  search?  Not  the  shining 
nugget  or  the  ore  which  will  yield  its  hidden  treasure 
only  to  the  pressure  of  machinery,  but  the  mould- 
covered  and  musty  papyrus — some  buried  and  long- 
forgotten  manuscript  that  may  seem  to  bridge  again 
the  gulf  which  separates  the  old  world  from  the  new. 
Perhaps  there  may  be  some  here  who  would  not  give 
[1.5] 


much  for  racb  treaaare-trove,  but  none  the  leu  ii  it 
true  that  the  explorers  in  Egypt  and  eliewhere  are 
adding,  like  the  mining  engineer,  to  the  sum  of  the 
world '8  wealth;  to  it*  opportunities  of  knowing  itself, 
its  past  history,  and  the  story  of  its  previous  intellec- 
tual efforts. 

And  BO  room  may  be  found  under  practically  the 
same  roof  for  science  on  the  one  hand,  and,  also,  for 
literary  studies,  those  branches  which  make  it  their 
business  to  investigate  the  origins  of  things — of  lan- 
guages, of  religions,  of  national  customs,  ideas,  and  in- 
stitutions. All  nations  haveneedof  the  "scholar  class," 
the  men  who  stand  for  ideas  and  ideals,  who  are  eager 
to  join  in  the  search  for  truth  and  to  proclaim  it  fear- 
lessly. The  one  thing  needful  is  that  all  investigations, 
literary  and  scientific  alike,  be  carried  on  in  the  spirit 
of  the  maxim  laid  dovn  by  the  late  M.  Gaston  Paris : 
"I  profess  absolutely  and  without  reserve  this  doc- 
trine, that  the  sole  object  of  science  is  truth,  and  truth 
for  its  own  sake,  without  regard  to  consequences,  good 
or  evil,  happy  or  unhappy.  He  who  through  patriotic, 
religious,  or  even  moral  motives,  allows  himself  in  re- 
gard to  the  facts  which  he  investigates,  or  the  conclu- 
sions which  he  draws  from  them,  the  smallest  dissimu- 
lation, the  slightest  variation  of  standard,  is  not 
worthy  to  have  a  place  in  the  great  laboratory  where 
honesty  is  a  more  indispensable  title  to  admission  than 
ability.  Thus  understood,  common  studies,  pursued 
in  the  same  spirit  in  all  civilized  countries,  form — 
above  restricted  and  too  often  hostile  nationalities — 
a  grande  patrie  which  is  stained  by  no  war,  menaced 
[16] 


by  no  conqueror,  and  where  our  eonU  find  the  reet  and 
communion  which  was  given  them  in  other  days  by  the 
City  of  God." 

And  now,  as  specially  representing  Oxford,  I  should 
like  to  say  a  word  or  two  of  the  feeling  of  unity  which 
may  well  bind  univareities  in  other  parts  of  the  Eng- 
lish-speaking worl'"  to  that  which  may  be  called  the 
"old  gray  mothei  of  them  all."    There  is  a  popular 
notion  on  this  continent  that  Oxford  is  an  anarciiron- 
ism,  used  up  and  out  of  date,  and  that  it  exists  only  for 
the  purpose  of  providing  the  sister  university  of  Cam- 
bridge with  a  partner  for  the  boat  race  and  the  univer- 
sity cricket  match.    Much  of  this  is  due  to  the  gentle 
irony  of  Matthew  Arnold,  who  spoke  lightly  (knowing 
that  he  would  not  be  misunderstoo'l  by  his  friends)  of 
Oxford  as  being  "steeped  in  prejudico  and  port;"  and 
who  apostrophized  the  university  as  "the  home  of  lost 
causes,  impossible  loyalties,  and  forsaken  beliefs." 
The  current  view  is,  however,  surely  a  heavy  penalty 
for  Oxford  to  pay  for  not  giving  special  prominence 
to  those  branches  of  technical  or  professional  study 
which  are  so  greatly  praised  in  America,  on  the  ground 
not  only  of  their  intrinsic  excellence,  but  also  for  the 
practical  reason  that  they  afford  a  speedy  means  of 
obtaining  a  livelihood,  and  that  they  contribute  also 
to  develop  the  material  resources  of  the  country.    It 
is  no  reproach  to  Oxford  to  admit  that  her  chief  glory 
centers  round  those  literary  and  humanistic  studies, 
of  which  it  may  be  said  in  brief  that  their  main  value 
lies  in  the  fact  that  they  are  followed  not  only  for  their 
[17] 


own  take,  not  only  as  endii  in  themselvei,  but  also  be- 
cause tbey  enter,  and  mast  ever  continae  to  enter  into 
all  the  other  branches  of  a  university  ourricnlam. 
Oxford  does  not  neglect  science,  although  oiroom- 
stances  prevent  Oxford  from  cultivating  all  branches 
of  science.  Wha  she  recognizes  is  the  fact  that  let- 
ters are  as  necessary  to  civilization  as  science,  and  that 
science  will  only  thrive  and  exist  in  an  intellectual 
atmosphere  where  literature  also  flourishes.  For  these 
two  grow  from  one  root. 

I  listened  with  interest  to  what  President  Van  Hise 
said  in  np])reciBtton  of  the  advantages  of  the  residen- 
tial system  at  our  great  English  universities.  There 
are  many  who  acknowledge  their  indebtedness  to  that 
system  for  a  degree  of  what  I  may  call  social  expe- 
rieniie  to  which  thev  might  not  otherwise  have  attained, 
fiut,  besides  being  a  great  school  of  manners,  Oxford 
has  realized  the  ideal  which  your  own  Mr.  Lowell  set 
before  American  colleges  in  his  memorable  oration 
at  the  Harvard  celebration,  when  he  said  that  he 
"would  rather  the  college  should  turn  out  one  of  Aris- 
totle's four  square  men,  capable  of  holding  his  own  in 
whatever  f  eld  he  may  be  cast,  than  a  score  of  lop-sided 
ones,  developed  abnormally  in  one  direction;"  and 
when  he  defined  the  general  purposes  of  college  edu- 
cation as  being  "to  set  free,  to  supple,  and  to  train  the 
fnculties  in  such  wise  as  shall  make  them  most  elec- 
tive for  whatever  task  in  life  may  aftarwards  be  set 
them — for  the  duties  of  life  -ather  than  for  its  busi- 
ness; and  to  open  windows  ori  every  side  of  the  mind 
where  thickness  of  wall  does  not  prevent  it." 
[18] 


October  of  this  year  wi'l  see  the  flrit  additioM  from 
American  collegei  to  the  ranks  of  Oxford  atudent* 
under  the  termi  of  the  Rhodes  Bequest.    It  may  be 
in  order  to  offer  a  word  or  two  on  that  much-discussed 
topic.    Let  me  first  recall  the  words  of  Mr.  Rhodes' 
will.    He  stated  in  express  terms  that  his  desire  was 
"to  encourage  and  foster  an  appreciation  of  the  ad- 
vantages which  will  result  from  the  union  of  the  Eng- 
lish-speaking peoples  throughout  the  world,  and  to 
encourage  in  the  students  of  the  United  States  of 
America,  who  will  benefit  from  the  Americon  scholar- 
ships, an  attachment  to  the  country  from  which  they 
have  sprung  without  withdrawing  them  or  their  sym- 
pathies from  the  land  of  their  adoption  or  l<irth."    It 
is  probably  the  fear  of  something  of  this  sort  that  has 
given  rise  to  certain  criticismr  of  the  Rhodes'  Bequest. 
The  most  acrimonious  that  1  iiave  seen  comes  from  a 
journal  that  calls  itself  the  "Cosmopolitan,"*   the 
editor  of  which  finds  fault  w^th  Dr.  Parkin  for  claim- 
ing (as  reported  in  a  newspapc'-  interview)  that  "Ox- 
ford during  three  fnnturies  has  turned  out  literary 
statesmen  for  England  as  regularly  as  clockwork,  and 
gives  to  students  the  kind  of  world-wide  knowledge 
that  will  enable  them  to  stand  among  the  great  ones 
of  the  earth."    The  literary  roll  of  honor  among  the 
statesmen  of  this  country  is  undoubtedly  growing  in 
distinction :  it  contains  names  like  those  of  your  great 
President  of  the  United  States,  the  strenuous  Thf  - 

•The  remarkB  which  form  the  BUbJect  of  what  folIowB  may  be 
tound  In  a  note  appended  by  the  editor  to  a  paper  In  which  the 
writer  Beema  to  gloat  over  what  he  concelTca  to  be  the  approach- 
ing dtaaolutlon  of  the  British  monarchy.    COBmopoIltan:  May,  1IK)4. 


dore  Roosevelt,  John  Hay,  and  others.  All  that  Dr. 
Parkin  meant  to  assert  was  that  Englanu  has  never 
lacked  statesmen  who  were  also  eminent  in  literature. 
But  what  says  the  editor  of  the  "Cosmopolitan"! 
"Seen  through  American  eyes  Oxford  has  not  turned 
out  two  great  statesmen  of  high  integrity,  broad  con- 
ceptions, and  personal  courage  to  each  of  these  three 
centuries." 

Then  he  proceeds  to  offer  a  prize  of  one  hundred 
dollars  to  any  one  who  will  name  such  statesmen.  I 
should  like  to  enter  this  competition  and  found  with 
the  proceeds  a  prize  in  the  history  department  of  the 
University  of  Wisconsin!  Mr.  Walker's  remarks  are 
practically  an  indictment,  not  of  Oxford,  but  of  Eng- 
lish statesmanship  for  the  last  three  hundred  years. 
For  it  is  true  that  a  very  great  proportion  of  Eng- 
land's public  men,  during  that  period,  were  educated 
in  Oxford:  the  rest  had  mostly  the  advantage  of  a 
Cambridge  training.  In  our  own  day  there  have  been 
from  Oxford,  Gladstone,  Morley,  Goschen,  James 
Bryce,  Asquith,  and  many  more.  A  century  ago  there 
were  Chatham,  Pox, Carteret  (the  first  Lord  Granville) ; 
two  centuries  ago,  John  Hampden,  Lord  Clarendon, 
Sir  Harry  Vane,  Sir  John  Eliot.  That  some  of  these 
not  merely  passed  through  Oxford,  but  retained  her 
teaching  in  the  deepest  substance  of  their  minds,  may 
be  inferred  from  the  famous  anecdote  of  Carteret  told 
by  Robert  Wood,  the  author  of  the  Essay  on  the  genius 
of  Homer.  Wood  called  on  Carteret  a  few  days  be- 
fore his  death,  with  the  preliminary  articles  of  the 
Treaty  of  Paris.  He  found  the  statesman  so  languid 
[20] 


that  he  proposed  postponing  the  business.  But  Car- 
teret insisted  that  he  should  stay;  "it  could  not  pro- 
long his  life,"  he  said,  "to  neglect  his  duty."  Then 
he  repeated  to  his  visitor,  in  the  original  Greek,  the 
immortal  lines  which  Sarpedon  in  Homer's  Twelfth 
Iliad  addresses  to  Glancus,  the  son  of  Hippolochus: 
"Friend  of  my  soul,  if  we  might  escape  from  this  war, 
and  then  live  for  ever  without  old  age  or  death,  I 
should  not  fight  myself  amid  the  foremost  ranks,  nor 
would  I  send  thee  into  the  glorifying  battle;  but  a 
thousand  fates  of  death  stand  over  us,  which  mortal 
man  may  not  flee  from  nor  avoid:  then  let  us  on, 
whether  we  shall  give  glory  to  others,  or  obtain  it  for 
ourselves."  It  was  the  spirit  of  Oxford  and  an  Ox- 
ford training  that  spoke  in  these  words  of  a  dying 
statesman.  Carteret  may  have  had  his  faults,— such 
faults  as  were  common  in  that  age.  But  this  story 
from  his  deathbed  will  ever  hallow  his  memory  in  the 
minds  of  those  who  know  what  an  Oxford  training 
means. 

It  was  certainly  Cecil  Rhodes'  intention,  in  addition 
to  improving  the  relations  of  the  English-speaking 
peoples,  to  help  to  enlarge  in  America — what  has  been 
the  glory  of  England— the  class  of  really  cultivated 
statesman,  capable  of  a  broad  and  generous  view,  free 
from  all  parochialism  and  crudity.  Of  course  Oxford 
cannot  create  men  of  genius:  nature  must  do  that. 
Neither  can  she  create  heroes  and  saints,  men  with  a 
burning  passion  for  humanity.  But  she  can  leaven 
all  the  human  materials  sent  her  with  a  certain  civiliz- 
ing influence,  a  certain  softening  power  of  beauty  and 
[21] 


of  thought.  Her  very  walls  will  do  it.  Most  of  you 
know  this  very  well.  I  appeal  to  my  friend,  President 
Harper.  What  greater  compliment  could  Chicago 
have  paid  to  our  English  universities  than  to  imitate 
their  buildings  in  structures  which  recall— in  what  I 
was  glad  to  find  last  week  are  really  no  uncongenial 
surroundings— the  stately  associations  of  the  college 
gardens  I 

We  must  not  expect  statesmen— men  of  action— to 
be  representatives  of  ideal  perfection:  none  of  them 
ever  has  been.  Caesar,  Cromwell,  Bismarck,  had  many 
obvious  faults.  It  is  high  praise  for  them  if  they  see 
the  thing  which  has  to  be  done,  and  can  be  done  in 
their  age,  and  get  that  thing  done.  If  they  were  votar- 
ies of  abstract  perfection,  and  would  not  move  till 
that  could  be  secured,  they  would  do  nothing  at  all. 
Why  then  should  Oxford  be  discouraged  by  the  fact 
that  the  editor  of  the  Cosmopolitan  holds  that  Cecil 
Rhodes  "did  not  propose  to  send  American  youths  to 
Oxford  to  be  educated,  but  American  youths  to  educate 
Oxford  in  the  ways  of  a  great  Republic"?  Or  again, 
"Oxford  annually  puts  forth  a  group  of  parliamentary 
mediocrities,  of  literary  jingoes,  of  political  make- 
shifts, of  legislative  dilletanti,  of  conservatives,  of 
opportunists,  of  men  who  sweep  with  the  tide,  and 
never  put  forth  a  fearless  effort  on  behalf  of  improved 
government."  And  once  more,  "Has  Oxford,"  cries 
J.  B.  Walker,"sent  out  within  fifty  years  a  single  fig- 
ure who  can  be  spoken  of  as  having  a  splendid  courage, 
a  high  integrity,  a  clear  intelligence,  a  comprehensive 
grasp  of  improved  governmental  methods,  and  at 
[22] 


heart,  solely  the  interests  of  his  fellow-men  1  No. 
Class  favoritism,  aocial  kotowing,  cowardice  in  oppos- 
ing popular  measures"  (whatever  may  be  the  meaning 
of  that)  "disciples  of  the  has-been  and  commonplace, 
these  are  her  graduates." 

Ladies  and  Gentlemen,  I  am  a  graduate  of  Oxford, 
which  I  am  proud  to  look  back  upon  as  my  Alma  Mater, 
and  I  must  confess  that  I  do  not  recognize  my  mother 
in  this  travesty  and  caricature.  Mr.  Walker  states  it 
as  a  fact  that  while  Oxford-trained  statesmen  "follow 
in  a  geuLiemanly  way  along  the  channels  of  personal 
advantage,  of  social  success,  of  universal  respecta- 
bility, London  has  22,000  homeless  ones  in  her 
streets."  He  does  not  mention  the  number  for  New 
York.  And  he  fails  to  recall— probably  because  he 
did  not  know  it— that  it  was  Oxford  that  first,  in  the 
foundation  of  Toynbee  Hall,  made  the  attempt  to  carry 
the  influence  of  university  men  out  among  the  masses 
of  a  great  metropolis.  If  I  mention  the  name  of  one 
more  Oxford  man  of  the  last  generation.  Lord  Shaftes- 
bury, that  will  be  enough  to  connlete  the  refutation  of 
the  charge  that  English  statesmen  neglect  the  interests 
of  their  fellowmen. 

I  am  sure  there  must  be  very  few  in  this  audience 
who  have  any  sympathy  with  the  statements  I  have 
quoted.  But  I  cite  them  with  a  purpose.  I  have  de- 
rived, on  the  other  hand,  some  relief  from  the  informa- 
tion that  this  sort  of  nonsense  comes  from  the  same 
omniscient  editor  who  once  stated  in  the  pages  of  his 
magazine  that  in  his  judgment  the  late  Queen  Victoria 
was  a  much  overrated  woman,  who  wasted  great  op- 
[23] 


portunities  for  usefulness  upon  trivial  matters  of  rou- 
tine and  ceremonial, — and  who,  in  his  desire  to  belittle 
everything  that  connect;  with  the  old  country,  also 
came  out  in  an  article  making  the  British  government 
responsible  for  the  loss  of  life  in  India,  by  taking 
such  steps  ns  would  develop  rather  than  suppress  the 
plague  and  famine  and  pestilence  that  from  time  to 
time  unhappily  devastate  the  teeming  millions  of  that 
great  continent.  Criticism  of  all  new  schemes,  such  as 
the  Rhodes  Bequest,  is  right  and  proper;  it  is  even 
open  to  any  one  to  have  misgivings  as  to  the  practical 
benefit  that  is  to  accrue  from  the  operation  of  Mr. 
Rhodes'  will.  But  the  man  who  makes  it  the  oppor- 
tunity for  trying  to  stir  up  ill  feeling  between  the  Eng- 
lish-speaking peoples  should  meet  with  the  reprobation 
of  all  right-minded  persons.  In  my  opinion  Mr.  Rhodes' 
main  purpose  will  be  amply  fulfilled  if  the  American 
students  at  Oxford  not  only  bring  back  from  that  uni- 
versity a  better  knowledge  of  the  real  friendliness 
which  is  felt  towards  Americans  in  the  old  country,  but 
also  if  the  monetary  inducement  which  he  offers  should 
attract  more  of  them  tlian  might  otherwise  be  the  case 
to  delay  that  rush  into  professional  work  which  has 
been  so  natural  in  the  early  days  of  a  new  country,  and 
to  spend  some  of  the  best  years  of  their  lives  in  get- 
ting out  of  Oxford  what  Oxford  is  so  well  qualified  to 
give — the  inestimable  advantages  of  an  all-round 
education. 

I  had  intended  to  refer  also,  did  time  permit,  to  an- 
other topic  of  present  day  interest, — the  report  of  the 
Mosely  Commission,  some  members  of  which  recently 
[24] 


visited  this  university,  along  with  others  in  the  United 
States.  In  reading  the  volume  which  has  been  issued 
in  the  name  of  this  commission,  I  am  deeply  impressed 
by  the  sincerity  of  the  compliments  and  congratulations 
which  the  commissioners  offer  to  the  educators  of  the 
United  States.  On  all  hands  recognition  is  given  to  that 
wonderful  enthusiasm  for  education  which  inspires 
everything  you  are  trying  to  accomplish  in  this  depart- 
ment,— to  your  "absolute  belief  in  the  value  of 
education,  both  to  the  community  at  large,  and  to  agri- 
culture, commerce,  manufactures,  and  the  service  of 
the  state."  The  "femininisation"  to  which  Dr.  Gil- 
man  referred,  as  something  which  had  appeared  to 
excite  apprehension  on  the  part  of  the  Mosely  com- 
missioners, is  by  them  connected, — as  I  read  their  re- 
ports— not  with  the  troublous  question  of  coeducation 
(though  I  do  not  know  that  any  one  of  them  would  be 
ready  to  go  to  the  stake  for  coeducation  as  a  principle), 
but  with  the  great  and  increasing  preponderance  of 
women  teachers  in  your  public  schools.  But  however 
this  may  be,  the  Mosely  commissioners  are  well  aware 
that  in  the  United  States  you  have  been  foremost  in 
realizing  that  one  of  the  greatest  discoveries  of  the 
nineteenth  century  has  been  the  discovery  of  the  value 
of  education.  You  know  that  it  is  the  best  educated 
nation  that  wins  in  the  race  with  others.  Take  the 
following:  "There  is  in  America  a  more  widely- 
spread  desire  for  the  education  of  the  people  than  in 
England,  and  it  is  generally  recognized  that  education 
is  to  be  g  7en  to  every  citizen  as  a  matter  of  right. 
Each  child  is  brought  up  on  the  understanding  that  it 
[25] 


i8  the  duty  of  the  state  in  which  he  lives  to  give  him 
the  best  education  he  is  fit  to  receive,  and  the  com- 
munity understands  that  the  public  funds  are  to  be 
drawn  upon  to  provide  for  such  education."  (p.  351.) 
"The  whole  people  nppear  to  regard  the  children  as 
the  nation's  best  asset,  whilst  the  children  themselves 
seem  to  be  animated  with  the  desire  tc  cultivate  their 
powers  to  the  fullest  extent,  because  they  realize  that 
they  can  only  hope  to  occupy  such  positions  in  life  as 
their  education  has  fitted  them  to  fill  with  credit." 
(p.  376.) 

More  than  one  of  the  Mosely  commissioners  quote 
with  approval  President  Roosevelt's  utterance,  when 
he  said  that  while  education  would  not  make  or  save  a 
nation,  the  nation  which  neglected  education  would  be 
assuredly  undone  in  the  long  run.  With  yon  educa- 
tion has  come  to  be  a  "prime  necessity  of  national  life, 
for  which  hardly  any  expenditure  can  be  too  great," 
and  the  opportunities  for  which  are  being  widely  dif- 
fused, and  made  generally  accessible,  in  all  its 
branches,  to  every  section  of  your  great  democracy. 
That  is  a  result  on  which  I  ask  to  be  allowed  to  join 
my  congratulations  to  those  of  my  fellow  countrymen 
who,  in  the  pages  of  the  Mosely  Commission  Report, 
have  enshrined  so  appreciative  and  bo  illuminating 
an  account  of  your  educational  system. 

Let  me  close  by  offering  a  word  of  congratulation 
on  the  success  which  has  attended  your  present  cele- 
bration. I  am  sure  I  am  speaking  for  all  your  guests 
when  I  say  it  has  been  the  occasion  of  great  enjoyment 
and  much  edification  to  the  whole  body  of  your  visitors. 
[26] 


Especially  to  those  of  ns  who  represent  other  conn 
tries,  yon  have  given  one  more  illustration  of  that 
spirit  of  whole-hearted  enthusiasm  which  pervades  all 
your  work  as  a  nation.  It  was  greatly  to  the  credit  of 
those  who  settled  the  western  states  that,  in  the  days 
when  their  thonghts  must  have  been  occupied  with 
what  many  would  consider  more  pressing  problems, — 
in  a  time  of  hurry  and  bustle  such  as  marks  the  birth 
of  a  new  community, — they  gave  their  best  energies 
to  the  organization  in  your  midst  of  an  institution  of 
the  higher  learning.  Fifty  years  may  seem  a  brief 
space  if  compared,  for  example,  with  the  antiquity 
which  Oxford  boasts,  but  the  true  standard  of  compari- 
son is  the  space  of  time  that  has  elapsed  since  this 
territory  was  organized  into  a  state  of  the  Union. 
That  was,  I  believe,  only  a  few  years  before  the  Uni- 
versity of  Wisconsin  was  launched  as  a  state  institu- 
tion upon  its  remarkable  career.  However  gratifying 
may  be  the  retrospect  as  it  was  sketched  for  us  in  the 
interesting  address  of  President  Van  Hise,  the  repre- 
sentatives of  sister  universities  feel  every  confidence 
that  your  outlook  for  the  next  half  century  is  still 
more  hopeful  and  promising.  Those  who  may  assem- 
ble here  to  celebrate  your  first  centennial  will  look  back 
upon  a  period  crowded  with  achievements  even  more 
glorious  than  those  we  celebrate  to-day.  Meanwhile 
the  festival  in  which  we  have  been  privileged  to  take 
part  will  stimulate  the  staff  of  this  university  to  even 
greater  and  more  strenuous  service.  It  is  on  them, 
along  with  the  new  president,  that  the  burden  mainly 
falls.  I  am  certain  that  they  will  realize  the  fact  that 
[27] 


after  all  a  university  is  what  ite  teachers  make  it; 
that  it  is  for  them  to  keep  it  a  living  and  active  force 
in  the  commnnity,  which  shall  not  be  content  only  with 
teaching  science  and  learning,  as  it  were,  ready-made, 
but  shall  always  endeavor  to  contribnte  to  the  making 
of  them.  May  this  university  remain  through  all 
time  a  center  of  American  national  life,  seeking  to  in- 
fluence at  every  point  not  only  education,  but,  also, 
social  progress  and  the  public  service  1 


[28] 


